Student Researchers and Academic Workers Unions Will Vote On Strike

Across the University of California campuses, the UAW 2865, UAW 5810, and SRU-UAW unions, which represent graduate students, postdocs, and student researchers, have voted “yes” on a resolution calling for a strike authorization vote. This decision means that later this month, the unions will begin voting on whether or not to authorize a strike. 

On October 6, roughly 1,300 academic workers gathered on the Biomedical Sciences Quad at the University of California, San Diego for the vote. The unions rallied for fair bargaining from the UC system as they renegotiate their contracts, claiming the University has not sufficiently engaged with their demands, particularly for higher wages. 

“I feel really proud of all of us. I think it’s really impressive that we’ve been able to do something this huge. I think this is the biggest event that’s happened at the University (UCSD) in terms of the union,” said Adam Caparco, a postdoc in NanoEngineering and current Financial Secretary for UAW 5810.

At 5:00 p.m., the unions began to gather by department; by 5:15 p.m., the crowd filled the entire Biomedical Sciences Library Quad. Students chanted, “Who’s UC? Our UC!” and carried signs that read, “Strike Ready” and “Solidarity is the Vibe Forever.”  Following speeches by graduate students and postdocs detailing experiences of workplace mistreatment, homelessness, and economic precarity, the resolution was finally passed.

“We’ve been bargaining with the University for a while now, and it’s clear that things like this need to happen so our demands will not be ignored,” said Kelsey Wardlaw, a third year masters student in the Latin American Studies program. 

The union representing postdocs has been re-negotiating its contract with the University of California for the past 16 months, and the union representing  graduate student workers has been in negotiations with the University for the past seven to 12 months.

The resolution states that the University, “has negotiated in bad faith and committed a number of unlawful actions that are impacting the bargaining process.” The core demands that unions are pushing for in their contracts include raising wages, action for climate and transit justice, benefits for working parents, and longer appointments and contracts to reduce precarity.

During the meeting, postdocs and graduate students stressed the urgency of raising wages amidst the ever-climbing cost of living in California. Indeed, the struggle for a “Cost of Living Adjustment” among graduate workers exploded in 2019 at UC Santa Cruz where skyrocketing rent costs were cited as a catalyst for the movement.

Caparco told The Triton, “over 50% of all of our units put together are paying over 50% of our income in rent so this is a very serious issue for us.” The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) describes paying 50% or more of one’s income in rent as a “severe rent burden.”

In La Jolla, the average monthly rent for a 1-bedroom apartment is $3,100, and rent in San Diego has gone up 10.5% since last year. Currently, the cheapest 1-bedroom, on campus, graduate housing option costs $1,500 a month. The average graduate student’s salary last year was $24,205, according to the Student Housing Association. Living in the cheapest 1-bedroom apartment available on campus, the average grad student would face a 74% rent burden.

The unions are currently demanding a $54,000 base salary for graduate student workers and a $70,000 base salary for postdoctoral workers. Even with the union’s proposed raise, many graduate students would continue to face rent burden.

According to union representatives, the University of California ’s bargaining team has held their offer of 4-6% raises. “Right now, the University of California is offering effective wage cuts to academic workers. These are raises that don’t even meet inflation…” stated Ahmed Akhtar, a sixth year Ph.D. candidate in the Physics department. The unions hope that authorizing a strike vote will motivate the University to budge on its offer.

The unions took similar actions on all UC campuses — voting “yes” to authorizing a strike vote, with 10% of all UC graduate students, postdocs, and researchers turning out. The unions will vote on whether to strike from October 26 to November 2.

Caparco told The Triton he remains hopeful that the UC will bargain more fairly in the future. “We want to make sure that people who are here to do good science are able to keep working and live comfortably,” Caparco said.

Lara Donabedian is an Assistant News Editor for The Triton. Kate Zegans is a Senior Staff Writer for The Triton.